Thursday, November 20, 2008

Each and every one of us has the day that we balance the books and work on our menu for the following week with shopping list following. My day for this is Thursday. It's the day before my husband gets paid so it I make sure that everything balances out before the new pay enters. I also make a plan for the upcoming week as to how we will be spending and such.

I set out any bills that need to be paid with that weeks pay along with envelopes,stamps and address labels. That way I have it all ready to go when they need to.

I also make up our menu for our meals for the following week this day because I have been doing our shopping on Friday mornings. This works best for us as our weekends are so busy. Once I get the menu made up I start on our shopping list. I try to keep a running list of things we are running out of or that we or someone needs,like toothpaste,deodorant,medication,ect. When someone notices that we or they are running low on something it's added to the running list. When I am making up the main grocery list I add those items that we are needing. That way I'm not running back out to get what we forgot and can't wait until next week.

Once I have the list made up I make sure it's not going to go over budget by adding the prices to make sure I stay on budget. I do this because I have the prices of the things I frequently buy. If it's something I'm not sure of I look it up and get a good sound idea of what it's going to cost and add that.

It's important to stay on budget as much as you can,especially if you have plans or are saving up for something. We have set our budget as low as we can and all of our expenses are subtracted from that amount. That way we are staying focused on our future goals and not living beyond our means. It's not easy but it can be done. Anything over the amount that we have set is saved. Right now we are using that to buy Christmas gifts. So we are not using credit to purchase. After the holidays we will save it. We are still working on the house so that amount will be used on the house to complete it,again working as we go so not to go into debt.